The article was entitled ‘Memo to Sultan’s commiittee on Almajiri (V).’

Sanusi said it is high time Nigeria implemented the Sharia guidance on the responsibility of a husband and father to maintain his family.

He said men should be made to take responsibility for their actions in the family, else almajiranci is only a “waste of time”.

Sanusi was quoted as saying: “I have only one comment and every time I make it it is dismissed but one day we will all come round to it.

“So long as we do not implement Shari’ah guidance on the responsibility of a husband and father to maintain his family, so long as we allow people to marry multiple wives and produce many children and refuse to enforce means testing, so long as women with children are divorced and the law does not force the father to bear full responsibility for the children, we will not solve the problem of almajirai and poverty.

“We are wasting our time talking about almajiranci; it is a symptom of a much deeper problem – the total disregard for regulations around the family and parental responsibility.”

He said other countries in the Muslim world have recognised the essence of implementing such Sharia provisions in family circles “but we continue to live in denial and even those who should know better refuse to face the reality.

“If we do not return to a system where everyone who wants the privilege of having a family must take the responsibility that comes with it, we will be talking about this problem in the next fifty years.

“Charity alone will not solve this problem. It is caused by irresponsibility among northern men, tolerated and encouraged by the system.”